


The Scent of a Half-Moon

by ecchi_mochi



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Romance, Basically I'm fixing everything, Cannon Complaint, Earning Trust, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fix-It, Hate at First Sight, Hybrid Bella, Jasper is not a proud confederate, Misunderstandings, Mystery, No Renesmee Cullen, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, Rosalie isnt a typecast bitch, Self-Doubt, Self-Hatred, Slow Burn, Started before Midnight Sun 2020 release, Suspicions, established pack from the start, half-immortal Bella, no demonizing native people, no imprinting on literal babies, we stan Charlie in this house
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:21:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24567610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ecchi_mochi/pseuds/ecchi_mochi
Summary: Bella has never understood what she is. Her body runs hot, her looks turn heads, and for as long as she can remember, no matter how hard she tried, she's had to ingest animal blood regularly to keep from committing atrocities she'll never forgive herself for.When she returns to Forks to move her burden from one adoptive parent to the other, she plans to live a quiet life, one where her loathsome secrets stay locked up tight until she's able to graduate and finally be free, but what will happen when she realizes she's not the only strange thing in their small corner of Washington?
Relationships: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Jacob Black/Bella Swan
Comments: 13
Kudos: 59





	1. Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my fanfic! Yes, I am slightly ashamed at still being into the twilight series but hey! Here you are...looking for more of its story. And here I am...rewriting her works (poorly probably) to better please my needs. 
> 
> Move aside, Stephanie! It's my turn to tell your story.
> 
> (TW: very brief mention of sexual abuse that never actually occurred or is talked about in detail. There will be none of that in this story.)

The rain lands softly on the cruiser’s window as Charlie drives away from the airport and back to the first home Bella's ever known.

She doesn’t necessarily hate Forks. Sure, Bella has spent the majority of her life under the sunny haze of California and Arizona, but it's a strangely comforting sensation to be back under a constant cover of clouds, as if she's being protected, hidden. This was the place she had been found all those years ago. Where she was taken in and allowed into a loving family despite… well… everything about her.

She has no memory of the days before Charlie wrapped her small body up in his parka and brought her to the hospital. She had been naked and covered in a disturbing amount of blood, leading to the seemingly obvious conclusion that someone must have molested her before leaving her out in the woods to die. But the more the police looked into it, the less any of it made sense.

Bella didn’t have a scratch in or on her, the blood she was covered in wasn’t her own, and, other than the blood, they couldn’t find a trace of anyone else at the scene.

Looking back with hindsight, it’s pretty clear now what must have happened before she passed out in a pile of dead leaves...but even so, Bella had no clue where she’d come from, how she was created, or what she was. This mystery she didn't necessarily want solved was probably the main thing stopping her from being the most enthusiastic about her decision to come back to Washington.

But she had to come back of course. Renee was getting depressed being away from her new husband too long and Bella didn't want to cause any more suffering than she already had. Dealing with a strange, superhuman, animal murdering daughter had very visibly ground her mother down over the years. That’s why, as soon as she had enough control over herself, Bella always let Renee be as childish and free-spirited as she pleased, ironically taking the role of the responsible, stable one.

That everpresent need to be responsible was now pushing her back towards Forks, where she’ll stay until she graduates the snail race that is high school before leaving the minuscule town to try and find something worth doing. If anything like that still existed. Staring out at the sea of green beyond the rain-spattered window, she wonders, how much harder could this be?

“Oh, I forgot to mention Bells,” Charlie says, breaking the silence they’ve been building since buckling up. “I found a good car for you.”

She nearly sighs. For Bella, there was no such thing as a "good" car. Despite only ever driving her mom’s beat-up minivan in Phoenix, she knew instinctively that no car she or her parents could ever afford would be fast enough for her. Even now, she could feel her leg bouncing from how slow Charlie was crawling through the wet streets.

“How much is it?” She asks dubiously.

“For you, zero, but don’t worry I got it for cheap. Do you remember Billy Black from La Push?”

Of course, she did. It’s been nearly impossible to forget anything since she woke up that day.

“Yeah I do. Is it his red pick up?”

“Yeah…how did you know tha-”

“You didn’t have to do that, Dad. I could’ve helped chip in.” Charlie shuffles in his seat a bit.

“I want you to be happy here Bells, it’s the least I could do.”

He keeps his eyes on the road as Bella notices his blood quickening with embarrassment. The smell of it causes her to leer at the deep, curved scar along Charlie's right forearm with a familiar pain in her chest...and a worse taste in her mouth. Though they’ve become distant after years of minimal contact, Bella could never quite shake off her immense guilt and respect towards Charlie. This man had saved her from whatever doomed fate she was destined for and cares for her, knowing full well what she’s capable of...

_What she’s done._

“Thanks, Dad. I appreciate it.”

Charlie mumbles a shy ‘you’re welcome’ and they spend the rest of the tedious ride in comfortable silence. 

When they finally pull up to the old house, the face of it greets her exactly as she remembers it, except for the Chevy, old as time, sitting out in the driveway. Exiting out of the cruiser, Bella feels cold rain droplets melt swiftly over her too warm skin. Well practiced, she feigns scrunching up in her thin parka before walking closer to the massive red dinosaur of a car.

Although it didn’t belong here in her memories, the truck looks the same too, if not slightly more dinged up. It's a fortress and is painted a pretty loud color, but there was something charming about its scratches and dents. On a newer car they would have inferred poor driving or misuse, but to have so few on a truck this ancient only proved that it has been well-used and loved throughout the years. More than she could've asked for.

“It looks better than I remember!” She lied elegantly. “Thanks again, Dad.”

“No problem.” Charlie says, his face getting red once more. Bella unconsciously swallowed. 

“Would you like me to help bring your stuff up?” 

“No, I got it.” Bella says, picking up her duffle bag and single cardboard box out from the trunk. 

Her bedroom is also exactly as it's always been. The scratched wooden floors. The dusty lavender walls, poorly painted over from the holes she used to accidentally make in them. Even the bedpost she used to gnaw on is still here, her small teeth marks deeply imbedded into the otherwise polished wood.

All of it's nostalgic but rather embarrassing. She wonders if redecorating would be at all helpful, but decides it isn’t worth the money. She’d remember how it looked before anyway.

As she unpacks her small amount of worldly possessions, Charlie leaves Bella to herself. It's a refreshing feeling, being alone somewhere other than the desert. No one to lie to, no one hovering over her shoulder to witness any small mistake she made even in her own home. Both of her parents have some idea of what she is, but even Renee doesn’t know the extent of it. They don’t know how slow everything feels, how fast she could run, how ripping a tree out of the ground would be no more difficult to her than picking a flower. If anything, picking a flower is much harder! She has to be very careful not to destroy its stem or pick up the dirt-filled roots along with it.

Those are all unfortunate attributes better off kept to herself and her lifelong goal so far has been to make sure things stayed that way until she was harmlessly rotting in her grave. After all, no one can keep a better secret than the dead.

After tucking away one last novel into her childhood bookcase, she sits on the edge of her new, or more accurately old, bed and looks out the window at the heavily increasing rainfall.

One of the many things Bella has always struggled to understand was just how differently she saw the world compared to those around her. For instance, she vaguely knew that a normal person shouldn’t be able to see right through the rain into their neighbor’s window. It was strange that she could see they had a crib and a half-painted wall of yellow. That there were boxes on the floor looking as if they were repackaged and sealed as opposed to waiting to be opened, a thin layer of dust collecting on many surfaces...

She turns away from the scene, feeling ashamed at herself for peeping into the lives of others, and lays down on her bed, letting her body sink into the freshly washed sheets.

Tomorrow she’d have to go to a dangerously tiny school with an alarmingly low number of students. It would be difficult to dissuade their interest quickly, especially when she’ll be the new, shiny thing in a place where people tend to transfer _out_ not in. 

Her appearance especially was sure to give her extended unnecessary attention. She has been told so many times, she stopped counting at 1,436, how ‘beautiful’ she is that it's become nauseating. Bella despises every centimeter of her body. How it never scratched or scarred, how she could hear her heartbeat pump quicker than everyone else's.

It was her body's fault that she had quit ballet three years ago, to both her own and Renee's despair. As one of the few activities where it is expected to be inhumanely graceful and athletic, she felt at home on the glossy wooden floors of her old ballet studio. She allowed herself to dream back then, of touring the world, flying through the air until she retired young, opening a ballet studio of her own. But being in such close proximity to others had too many negative effects. She never got hurt, never dropped a bead of sweat. Often she'd have to be taken out of her reverie, dazed by the flooded scents of the boiling, hardworking blood around her. She was proud that she never slipped up, never bit a partner as they trained, but as she towered over her fellow students with her talent, people began to pay closer attention. Those who knew her long enough noticed that it wasn't just their envy telling them something was off about her. She just wasn't normal.

Once high school started, she left her program without a word, the accepted applications and scholarships to ballet schools abandoned, her dreams left to collect dust.

The scrutiny never ended though. Every day she was forced to perform her imitation of how a normal person acts and thinks. She figured it had to be some sick joke, that someone out there was laughing at her trying to get through life normally when no physical aspect of hers would ever allow that. 

It got worse as she grew up, now having to dodge the attentions of her hormonal peers as well as adults who either thought she was old enough to flirt with or didn't care if she was. She tried many times to make herself look less appealing, never combing her hair and wearing oversized clothing being the most common attempts, however, since she also didn’t want to get attention for looking or acting strange, nothing ever seemed to work. 

In fact, the ‘worse’ she looked, the more approachable she became and the more people bothered her. In the end, she gave up and just wore whatever felt comfortable, threw away any makeup related gifts, and just tried desperately to keep to herself. 

It had worked somewhat in a school with thousands of students, but how would she survive when the entire school population was less than her previous grade’s population alone? 

Deciding that her reaction to Charlie's blushes earlier today meant she should go out tonight, Bella heads downstairs to ask him for her key to the house. Unlike any other responsible parent of a teen, he doesn’t ask questions when he hands them over or when she leaves out the back door into the deep night. This was another great thing she was learning was nice about staying with her dad. Unlike Renee, who would shower her in redundant 'Be careful!'s and 'Don’t stay out late!'s Charlie just let her go. To do the unspeakable thing she needed to do.

Walking casually into the forest behind the house, Bella continues for quite a few paces, knowing she has to be far away from anyone’s sight before zooming off, picking up speed through the forest. 

The wind blows through her hair as she pushes through the protective mental barrier in her mind and lets herself reach her body's true limits, the cold night air bringing back memories of her childhood. She remembers running through these woods, dodging the trees and searching for anything alive and moving. She had been messy then, always staining her clothes in red only to be met with looks of horror from Charlie and Renee after coming home. Those were the days she tried the hardest to stop. To just eat food and not let her guardians worry. She gnawed on her bedpost at night, held her breath throughout the day, and at the slightest shift in someone's heartbeat, she always had to freeze herself where she was standing to avoid doing something she'd regret. It had been torture.

When it all finally became too much for her, she had bitten Charlie's forearm as he reached out to hug her. In a frenzy, she took him in, giving in to her thirst and latching on tight, breaking his wrist with her hold. He gasped in pain but he didn't fight back. Instead, he slowly began stroking her hair, whispering through struggling pants that it was alright, everything was going to be okay.

He got twelve stitches, a blood transfusion, and a wrist cast that day. The nurses kept asking Renee what had happened that mangled her husband so horribly, but she stayed silent as she watched Bella cry over his hospital bed, blubbering through apologies and how she tried to stop. _She really tried._

Moving her mind away from the painfully clear memory, she focuses on the task at hand and weaves elegantly through the sitka spruces and hemlocks, so different than the craggy desert she had grown used to. In her hurry for quantity over quality, she manages to snatch a few rabbits and even a young doe, sucking their bodies dry.

It’s been many years since she cared about the distinct flavors of each animal, let alone which one she preferred. It wasn’t something she ever liked thinking about in general, wanting to reject as much pleasure she got out of her nightly hunts as possible. Not that it was very difficult. The taste of human blood is too easily remembered on her tongue, making any creature she took in taste no better than a boiled cauliflower. Even so, she sighs with relief with each new catch, feeling more comfortable knowing she is one step closer to keeping her promise to Charlie and to herself.

On her way home, a smell hits her that’s faint yet familiar. It carries the sickly-sweet scent of those strangers who would sometimes come up to her in the middle of the night, asking meddling questions and staring at her with their unsettling red eyes. She hadn't met many of them, only four in her entire life, but the questions were always the same: "Why do you smell like that?" "What are you?" "Are you one of us?" 

She never stuck around long enough to learn much about them, but it was clear from her few fearful interactions that they were dangerous and not human…

_Just like her._

_No…_ she reminded herself. _I am_ not _like them._

Hoping that the horrible creatures just came and went on their journey to somewhere far away, she arrives back home, locks the door, and falls into bed with a sigh, her stomach filled with blood.

-  
After a quiet, bland tasting breakfast, Charlie heads to the police station for the day, leaving his daughter behind to wait anxiously for an appropriate time to go to school. Part of Bella wonders if getting there late would prevent her from being cornered by the entire student body, but ultimately she decides to arrive on time. Might as well try to appear painfully average from the start.

While waiting she stands out on the front porch without her jacket, taking in the fresh, chilled air. Bella had highly underestimated just how nice the colder weather would feel on her skin. In Forks, her abnormal body heat seemed more like a blessing than the curse it had been in the sweltering warmth of Pheonix. Each breath was full and refreshing, saturated with the smell of drenched trees and mud. The comfort it brings her sends a swell of unexpected confidence through Bella. She could like it here. She could make this place her home again.

Once it’s been just long enough, Bella throws on her mostly useless parka, and hops swiftly into her new, well, new to her, red truck. After lowering her window to take in more cold air, she loudly exits out of the driveway and trudges her way through the slick roads.

Even if Bella didn't have a very good memory, it would have been easy to find the collection of maroon-bricked buildings that made up the Forks High School campus. It doesn't really look like a school to her. It's too small, too uninstitutionalized. This is a place where there aren't enough kids to have a catastrophe and not enough diversity for people to irrationally hate each other. It will take some getting used to.

Bella turns lazily into the modestly filled parking lot only to almost skid from braking too quickly, earning an agitated honk from the car behind her.

Panic flows through her veins in that instance and she can barely stop herself from shaking in fear. The once refreshing air coming in from her open window was now pumping in nothing but a sugary smell, the same one from the forest last night!...only it wasn't alone. Her mind scrambled over itself as she picked the scents apart. There had to be around at least five total. The thickness of the scents suggested that they frequented this spot, often enough that even the never-ending rain couldn't wash the smell away, but they weren't quite fresh enough for them to be here right now… _yet._

She contemplates turning back, thinking up any excuse she could give to Charlie. Is finishing high school online an option? God knew she was far enough above her grade level to pass the GED test that afternoon. The only reason she had participated in public school in the first place was because Renee thought it was important to blend in with society, that staying away from everyone would make her adopted daughter’s strangeness grow somehow. But how could she stay normal if those… _monsters_ were going to get in her way! 

_Monsters like you._

The car behind her honks again, making Bella realize she was still stopped at the entrance to the school, holding up traffic. Shaking her head, she parks at the building with a door that reads FRONT OFFICE before desperately searching the cab of her truck. Every single one of their kind that she encountered before had found her because she smelled different than everyone else. To her, she just smelled normal, neither overly sweet nor upsettingly enticing, but if her scent was potent enough for one of them to find her in a city full of people, then her strangeness would be found out less than twenty-four hours after she'd arrived back in Forks. She refuses to let that happen.

Predictably finding no perfume or smelly item to mask her scent with, Bella knocks her head back on her seat in defeat when an idea pops into her head. This old car! Its _gotta_ have some nasty stuff under the hood. 

Zipping her parka up all the way to hide herself and her scent, she quickly exits her cab and pops up the front of her truck. Although it seems to have been cleaned recently, there were still traces of…whatever was around in the engine of a car…as much as she loved learning new things, Bella had never been quite bored enough to read more than the cover of a car manual. 

After taking a quick look around to make sure no one was watching her, she starts rubbing her hands all over the interior and disgustingly wipes the residual goo on her neck, face, and even some in her hair. The feel of it makes her cringe but after taking a deep breath, any trace of her natural scent has been properly masked under what she could only describe as ‘overwhelmingly mechanic’.

Pleased yet still terrified, she closes the hood and shuffles into the front office, trying to look bashful for being slightly late.

An unnaturally red-haired woman sitting behind one of the desks looks up as Bella enters, doing a double-take at the sight of her. Despite her panic, Bella sighs under her breath.

“C-can I help you?” The woman fumbles after regaining her composure. 

“Yes, I’m Isabella Swan.”

The woman's eyes brighten in familiarity and her disposition turns sunny, recovering quicker than most people do after meeting Bella for the first time. Rifling through unorganized piles of paper on her desk, she seems to find what she’s looking for and moves over to the front, handing Bella a schedule and a map of the school. After instructing Bella with what she must do for the day, mostly just attending class and having things signed, the woman, who she now knows as Mrs. Cope, sits with a hefty sigh back in her desk chair, her eyes sneaking up to take one last peek at the stunner who was somehow Chief Swan's daughter.

Bella turns with one last "Thank you" and carefully makes her exit, scanning the parking lot which now seemed to house the whole school’s population of cars, a few stragglers still among them.

As casually as she can, Bella moves her truck away from the faculty parking and over to the student parking spaces. While most of the cars were humble and far from new, the shiny, silver Volvo that hadn’t been there before caught her attention immediately. 

That unmistakable smell was coming out from it full force. Driving slowly beside it, she could see that no one was inside, which meant that they were somewhere on campus…

Gulping down her built up spit, Bella decides to park as far away from the most expensive car in the lot as possible, taking her key out of the ignition before its thunderous engine brought any more attention to herself.

Groaning, she sits back in her seat a little longer trying to avoid the subtly sweet taste on her tongue. She's going to have to face those…things eventually. Even if her current plan worked, there was no way she could cover herself in muck every school day for the next two years. Why were they even here anyway? She'd never seen their kind in the light of day before and it seemed like they preferred being on their own. To have five around at the same time was way too many, way too dangerous. Bella closes her eyes, stopping the moisture growing in them before they can threaten to spill. Was it too much to ask for one day, _one day_ , of normality?

_You don’t deserve normality._

With an annoyed grunt, Bella opens the car door and slams it behind her, the sugary smells coating her every breath.


	2. Gifts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've changed how some of the character's gifts work to make more logical sense as well as add spice to the story. Hope you guys like it!

Edward frowns at his spiky-haired sister from across the lunch table, her brow furrowed for the hundredth time this week. 

“ _Jasper,_ ” Edward muttered in an exasperated tone.

The blond’s hand was on the girl's back in less than a second, focusing a steady flow of his power into her. Almost immediately, Alice was flooded with a forced sense of relaxation. Her face unscrunched itself and her lids drooped serenely, but her negative thoughts weren’t completely appeased, the annoyance simply redirecting itself onto a new target.

Knowing it wouldn’t work, she tries to kick her traitorous, mind-reading brother under the table, whiffing elegantly as Edward's leg moved out of the way. 

“I’m fine.” She says in a calm voice.

“It didn’t seem that way.”

The tiny girl crosses her arms lazily but is inevitably unable to fight against the calming presence she's been engulfed in. Not wanting to be kept in that dulled state, she gazes up lovingly at the tall boy sitting next to her. 

“ _Please, Jazz?_ ” Alice asks, her eyelashes fluttering softly. 

Jasper grins as he lifts away his power, pulling her close to kiss her forehead before continuing to concentrate on ignoring the dry ache building in his throat. Alice's heart lightens at his affection and effort against his thirst, but soon enough, her brow is in its place again, echoing her turbulent thoughts. 

“I’m sorry but…It’s just…It’s _so frustrating_. It feels like I’ve been shut off.” 

Everyone at the table went rigid, a tense atmosphere sweeping over the sons and daughters of the Cullen family. 

About a week ago, Alice admitted darkly that she wasn't able to see anything, not a single image, of any of their futures after today. Usually, that wouldn't have been too strange. The far future was always shifting, the paths changing course constantly. It was to be expected that her visions would be slightly fuzzy as she looked towards her family's upcoming hunting trip, making sure everything would go smoothly, but for the first time in her long life, the visions weren't just difficult to see, they weren't there at all.

She had spent the better part of that evening and all subsequent evenings trying to figure out what was wrong, Edward paying close attention beside her as she browsed through the few wispy visions she had left. Though she quickly found exactly where her visions ended, no matter how hard she'd tried, she couldn't find the cause. Nothing gave her any hint as to why their futures were about to blink out of existence.

Today was the dead-end and, with the unknown directly ahead of them, the Cullens were all realizing just how much they depended on Alice's gift. Decades of knowing everything coming their way had made them overconfident. They knew that Alice’s predictions could change at any moment, but they also knew, so long as they had _something_ to go off of, their family would always have a leg up, they would be prepared for anything. 

They weren’t prepared for this.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Emmett whispers, his deep voice too fast and quiet for anyone but them to process. “Why would our futures suddenly stop?” 

Rosalie stayed silent, but her thoughts these past few days proved that she was the one worrying the most about what this would mean for them, the dangers it would expose them to.

It wasn’t that Alice’s gift was completely gone; she had been very clear about that. There were still flashes of the group in Alaska as well as vague predictions about upcoming weather, but trying to coax anything about them was proving impossible. 

It kept them all on edge. Was Alice’s gift losing potency somehow? Carlisle thought it was highly unlikely. He knew vampires centuries older than himself that still kept the full effect of their gifts. They were consistent creatures, frozen in time. The strange and wonderful powers that accompanied them to their second life never just faded away. However, with that in mind, there was only one other explanation they could think of.

Something bad was going to happen. Soon. And they wouldn’t know what it was until it arrived.

There had been a long-winded discussion on whether or not they should move somewhere else, to try to escape whatever might be coming, but they were unsure. They had just gotten settled in Forks, the ‘kids’ not even graduated from high school yet. Leaving out of the blue was sure to cause a stir throughout the whole town and it was still too soon to return back to where they were before. The whole reason they had left Alaska in the first place was because a group that large was starting to become too inconspicuous, too noticeable for both humans and others of their kind.

They also didn't think splitting up was a good idea. It wasn't that long ago that Rosalie and Emmett were off on their own as a married couple and Esme was so happy to have the entire family back together again. There was strength in numbers as well, precious few had ever directly confronted them when they were together as a group of seven.

After a lot of back and forth, they ultimately decided to stay in Forks for now and live their lives as normal, to see if danger really was coming around the corner before deciding if they should run. Still, none of them were at ease.

“We’ll figure it out, Alice,” Jasper says carefully, making up for his uncomfortable tension by rubbing her back.

“Yeah. Even if something comes, we’ll be able to handle it.” Emmett declares, his overconfidence spilling out of his toothy grin. 

Rosalie's stiff expression melts into an adoring smile at her mate's earnestness but Alice had already returned to concentrating, trying fruitlessly to get a glimpse, just one, of what future lay ahead for them.

Giving up on her, Edward drifts his gaze around the crowded lunchroom, searching through everyone's minds for anything at all that could be a threat to his family. This has always been his responsibility, to make sure no one ever suspected anything, that they were acting just human enough to trick everyone into thinking they _weren't_ blood-sucking monsters. They all played their parts well, but the safety came at a price: constant, torturous monotony.

He was glad, of course, that they had stayed safe from any pitchforks and torches, but Edward often questioned his quality of life, if you could even call what he was experiencing living. On good days, he just accepted the neverending do-overs as a fitting punishment for what he was. On bad days, each passing second became harder to endure as his ennui slowly wrapped itself tighter around him. At least with the threat of danger on the horizon, he had some sort of purpose, something to look forward to in a bleak way. What if what was coming would finally put an end to him? Edward was glad his family couldn't hear how he relished the thought.

Turning his attention back to the low mumbles of the student body’s thoughts, Edward hears a consistent topic at the forefront of everyone’s mind, the same one he’s been hearing about all day. 

_...new girl looks like a model. Why did she move to the middle of nowhere... ...have to stop staring at her. Your girlfriend's watching...oh, but she's so hot... ...why are all the guys drooling over her? As if she'd date any of them. She's way over their league... ...pretty...she's so pretty... ...haughty bitch. I'll bet she moved here because of some scandal back home... ...maybe If I walk by her table she'll look at me...but what if I trip??... ...isabella swan... ...Isabella Swan... ...ISABELLA SWAN..._

The thoughts swirling around this new girl weren't very unique, but there was something odd about the sheer eagerness the hormonal teenage boys, and even some of the girls, were displaying. This wasn't the usual moronic, adolescent interest in something shiny and new entering their immediate vicinity. It was hard to believe, but he could only compare it to the amount of attention Rosalie got when arriving at Forks high for the first time.

Feeling slightly curious, Edward shifts his focus to where the commotion is loudest, catching a pair of warm, brown eyes before they turn quickly away from him, back to the food tray in front of her. Her chest-length wavy hair had hidden most of her face and she was seated with her back towards him.

_...He looked at her!..._

The thought belonged to Jessica Stanely, the curly-haired girl sitting to the new girl's right. She turned away from Edward as well, but not quite as quickly as she leaned in closer to Isabella. Overhearing their conversation, Jessica seemed to be introducing his family.

“The blondes are the Hale twins. Rosalie and Jasper. The boys beside them are Edward and Emmett Cullen and the short one next to Jasper is Alice Cullen." She said excitedly under her breath. "They're all Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids.” 

The new girl, simply hummed in response, taking a bite of the apple she held with a muted snap. Her mind was surprisingly empty for someone in the middle of a conversation, but Edward didn’t have time to consider that before her friend continued, clearly trying to entice her with gossip. 

“Weirdly enough, they’re all like _together._ Emmett with Rosalie and Alice with Jasper, I mean. And they _live_ together!” She whispers with a shake of her head. 

"Jess," A shy voice condemns. Edward recognized her as Angela Weber. "It's not like they're actually related."

"Yeah but...I don't know, that's just not normal."

“ _Definitely not,"_ Isabella finally says, a strange hint in her otherwise silvery voice. "Nothing about them seems normal.” 

The sentiment is enough to make Edward stiffen and turn back to his table, but, for some reason, he doesn’t stop his eavesdropping, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“I know right? They’re way too gorgeous.” Jessica says, taking another glance at Edward. “They keep to themselves too, like the only ones good enough for their company are each other. Like I care.” She sneers bitterly. 

Edward could see himself in her mind now, when he had politely turned down her offer for a date a few months ago. It seems she made the assumption that he was stuck up and pompous for having refused her, his glance at the new girl sealing his superficiality. The corner of his mouth lifted at the thought of what going on a date with a human would entail. Holding hands, stealing kisses, possibly getting the pleasure of tearing into her throat before bringing her home by curfew. What a sick joke. He pays attention though as Jessica’s thoughts shift to the new girl’s looks, a mixture of admiration and jealousy tinting her next statement.

“You know, you’d probably be the only one to get along with them…since you’re so-“

“When did they move here?” Isabella asks, purposefully changing the subject. 

Edward’s eyes narrow, he didn’t hear her think the question before she asked it. 

“About two years ago, in the middle of freshman year. They came down from somewhere in Alaska.” 

Edward pays closer attention, waiting for a replying thought from the brunette, but nothing comes up. Nor does she audibly respond, continuing to eat her food quietly as her friend gets bored of her, shifting in her seat to talk to someone else at the table. 

When he glances back at the new girl, she’s talking, well, being talked at, by a boy a few seats away from her, eagerly asking questions that she gives very short answers to. Her mind stays silent the whole time.

Edward stares frustrated at the table, his lips forming a tight line. He didn’t want to speak up about the incident and cause panic among his siblings, but if what was happening to Alice was starting to happen to him then they were in more trouble than he thought. 

Edward took his normal seat in biology. As usual, no one dared to sit next to him at his dark lab table, so he stared out the window, keeping an eye out and thinking about how long it's been since his family hunted. They were all starting to get dark around the eyes and the stress of recent circumstances didn’t exactly help everyone’s thirst. It made him think. What if their 'vegetarian' diet was causing their gifts to fade? Other than himself and Carlisle, Alice currently had the longest streak of not drinking human blood. Maybe she was just suffering from some strange, blood-related vampire sickness? He couldn’t even convince himself of it.

Suddenly, as if out of thin air, the fumey smell of gasoline and motor oil fills up the room, making Edward scrunch up his nose in disgust. Turning towards the assaulting smell, his eyes widen when he finds that it’s not coming from some greasy car mechanic, but from the transfer student, standing in front of Mr. Banner while handing him something to sign. With her face unobscured by hormonal thoughts or the back of her head, Edward could now see why she had been on the minds of everyone within a half-mile radius.

It was almost inhumane how perfect she was. She was pale, but her translucent, unblemished skin was flush with life, her cheeks carrying an immensely flattering rosiness to them. Her nose swooped elegantly down her face and her lips were round, cupid-like. Their soft, ruby tint made it seem as if she applied rouge masterfully, but Edward could tell that, somehow, she wasn’t wearing any makeup whatsoever. Even so, it was hard to believe that her eyelashes were that long naturally, or that her warm, chocolate-colored hair swept down her shoulders like that without interference, the slight touch of being ruffled from her jacket’s hood only increasing its charm. 

If she had been a vampire, he wouldn’t have looked twice…well, maybe just twice…but even from his corner of the room, he could hear her heart beating rapidly as if she was hiding an anxiety attack under that calm, collected face. Her only failing feature was the horrendous engine scent that clung to her, the way Rosalie sometimes smelled after coming out from working in the garage. Maybe that’s exactly what this girl had done this morning, and that was reasonable enough, but Edward had to question her sanity if she thought not cleaning herself afterward was at all a good idea.

The smelly, incandescent girl sat down on the stool next to him, the only seat available in the entire room. Without sparing him a glance, she quietly took out a single notebook, barely taking a breath as she stared forward and waited for class to start. 

Edward was thoroughly startled and intrigued now. He’d never seen someone react to him like this. Most people, especially girls, would stare at him worriedly or would openly be uncomfortable being so close to him, their subconscious instincts aware of the danger even if their conscious mind didn't know it. Instead, this girl was acting like he didn’t exist, convincingly enough to make him consider if there was actually something wrong with her eyesight.

He decides to try taking a quick peek into her mind again…but once more…he got nothing. Edward stared at her, growing more and more frustrated as the silence continued. He clenched his fist, his knuckles turning white and, in a panic, he listened to the other minds in the room, just to make sure he still could.

The male student behind him was imagining the girl in ways that made Edward ashamed to be a man. The one sitting at the table to their right was deciding what rumors to spread about the unwelcome newcomer, already calling her unpleasant names in her head. The teacher also seemed to be shaken to the core that this was the Isabella Swan everyone had been talking about, the daughter of the police chief. Seeing the man in Mr. Banner’s thoughts, Edward was confused as well, they looked nothing alike. Either Isabella's mother had given her the entirety of her insanely lucky genetics or Chief Swan managed to adopt the prettiest kid at the orphanage. He figured it had to be the latter. 

Holding his breath so as to not take in any more of her unfortunate smell, Edward decides to talk to her, to see if he could get into her head through familiarity if not close proximity.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe we’ve met.” He says, leaning towards her, trying to be as charming as he can. “My name is Edward Cullen. What’s yours?”

Her eyes look up quickly from her notebook, but she takes her time turning her head towards him. He was surprised by the cold expression on her otherwise warm face. 

“I’m Bella. Bella Swan.” She says quietly, seemingly unenthused about being talked to.

“Not Isabella?” He asks, more to keep her talking than out of genuine curiosity.

She sighs softly, her smooth face looking slightly disgruntled.

“I prefer Bella.” She states simply.

“It’s a beautiful name.” he offers, but she cringes at the word beautiful, her pained expression throwing Edward for a loop. He listens close for any whisper of a thought, but her mind stays silent.

“You have my mom to thank for that one.” She says in a less than friendly tone.

“You don’t like your name.” It wasn’t a question.

“No, it's fine.” She replies, back in her simple tone.

Edward was lost. Nothing she was saying made any sense to him, her reactions less so. It was thrilling in a way, not being able to understand what someone meant. To not know what they were going to say before they said it. It filled him with strange anticipation, but also a growing sense of worry. 

Before he could ask another question, Mr. Banner started class and her attention was directed wholeheartedly to the front, her cold eyes never turning back to his. 

It was an hour of torture. He kept Bella in his periphery as she dutifully took notes during the lecture. From the looks of it, it didn’t seem like anything being taught was confusing or new to her, but that it was very important to get down every word, never pulling her attention away from the board. Edward couldn’t stop listening to her hard-working heart. It's rapid pounding never slowing, even though she showed no signs of anything being wrong. He couldn’t piece any of it together.

When class was over she packed up quickly, heading to the door without a word, but Edward was right on her tail.

"Let me help you find your next class,” He offered chivalrously.

“Thanks, but I know where it is,” Bella deflected, holding up the folded map she had in her hand. It looked fresh out the printer and uncreased, as if she hadn't used it at all throughout the day. 

Despite being turned down, Edward kept up with her speed-walking pace. He wasn’t done with her yet.

“So, you’ve recently moved to Forks.”

“Yup.” She says with a clear, matter of fact voice.

Bella’s face was unreadable. Was she uninterested? Annoyed? Nervous? Her mind gave him no answers. It was incredibly frustrating. All he had to go off of was her constantly pounding chest, almost crashing in his ears with its speed and fluidity. How was she keeping such a still face with a heartbeat like that?

“Are you nervous about attending a new school?” He asks, maybe a little too eagerly.

She doesn’t turn to him, instead, continuing her way swiftly through the building. 

“No. Not really.” She says. “I’ve changed schools before.”

“Really? From where?”

She pauses for a bit as her eyebrows crease, but seems to decide something in her head. Edward would have totaled his car to know what it was.

“I used to live in California…but my mom and I moved to Phoenix a while ago.” 

“This must be quite different for you then.” He says, gesturing to the rain. 

They were outside now, walking under the pavilions that stretched between all the buildings on campus. Although she didn't follow his gesture, she shook her head and closed her eyes.

“ _You have no idea._ ” She says in an exhausted manner, exhaling the sentence more than saying it. 

_What did_ that _mean_ , Edward wondered, desperately searching her face for the answer. The way she talked so ambiguously was really starting to affect him. He had to ask more.

“Whatever could have caused you to move from Phoenix to the wettest place in the continental US?”

“It’s complicated.” She says.

“I think I might be able to keep up.”

She pauses again, but, after making another unknown decision, decides to respond.

“My mom got remarried.”

“Sounds very complicated.” He teases, almost letting out a smile. “And you don’t like him.” 

This time she turns towards him. 

“No, he’s-“ Bella stops mid-sentence when she notices Edward staring at her, his face expectant, waiting for her response. 

Her eyes widen as she stares back and for the first time since meeting her, Edward fully recognizes the emotion behind them. It was fear. This girl, who he's known for only an hour, was wholeheartedly, and unmistakably afraid of him. In a flash, her blank expression is back and she looks forward again.

“Phil is fine.” 

With that, she ducks through the door of the gymnasium building, giving no farewell before disappearing into the female locker room. 

Edward’s mind was preoccupied for the rest of his last period class. By the time the bell rang, he knew what he needed to do and flew out the door, pinpointing his brother out from the minds of everyone at school. He found Jasper exiting out of Spanish class and dragged him through the crowd, out into the parking lot. 

“Jasper, I have a favor to ask,” Edward mumbled, his voice quiet enough so no one could hear.

“And what could that be?” Jasper asked, feeling the strange adrenaline his bronze-headed brother was pumping out.

Edward searches through the building crowd, focusing mainly on the area around the gym. When he finds her, he points at Bella inconspicuously, just enough for Jasper to know who he’s talking about.

“I need you to make that girl right there, the brunette, laugh out loud. To really bust a gut in the parking lot.”

Jasper raises an eyebrow at Edward’s unusual request. He wasn't usually one for pranks, but, feeling Edward's seriousness, Jasper shrugs and focuses his gaze on the strangely pretty girl. Before he could do anything, Bella walks out of range through the door of the office building, so they wait, Jasper more patiently than Edward, next to the Volvo for her to come out. By the time she was back outside, the rest of them had just congregated together.

“What’s going on?” Emmett asks, his eyes roaming to where everyone was looking.

“Edward’s forcing Jasper to make some poor girl laugh,” Rosalie responds unapprovingly, smacking her mate in the arm when he dons a broad, mischievous smile.

“Oh, come on. I think we’re all in need of a little comedy now and then.” Alice says, looking up encouragingly at Jasper.

He gives her a quick smirk before turning his attention to the girl, focusing his energy into laughter and hysterics… 

But nothing happens. He can’t even get a sense of what she’s feeling as she walks across the parking lot, close enough that he could smell that machine scent Edward had mentioned. 

The group grows quiet as her face stays blank, carefully making her way through the parking lot towards the ancient truck on the opposite side of the lot. Jasper starts casually moving closer to her, wondering if distance was somehow the reason his power wasn’t working, but still, she doesn’t let out a giggle. Not even a smile. 

Bella closes the door to her truck and loudly exits out of her parking spot, slowly making her way through the line of cars until she’s off-campus and onto the highway.

Everyone looks at Edward, the playfulness gone from their faces, but he stays silent, gazing out at where the mysterious girl had been.


End file.
